Chapter 25: It's Him!

Before Ling Qiu’s eyes appeared a girl of extraordinary beauty.

Her complexion was pale as paper, wan as moonlight, yet this could not mask her flawless features. She seemed sixteen or seventeen, and beneath the innocence of youth, a heavy sorrow clouded her face.

Yet this was not the most important thing.

The crucial detail was a faint, nearly imperceptible red mark at the center above her lips.

“This is… the Soul Binding Seal?!” Ling Qiu swiftly examined the girl, discovering matching red dots on her neck, wrists, and ankles.

There was no mistake.

It was indeed the Soul Binding Seal.

“How ruthless—to trap her soul even after death, forbidding her from passing on!” Ling Qiu’s brows knit together. He silently recited an incantation, gently turned the King Yama Ring, and, channeling ghost arts onto his fingers, tapped the girl’s marked points in quick succession.

Whoosh—

Suddenly, the mortuary was swept by chilling winds, colder than before.

A hazy presence gathered before Ling Qiu’s eyes. He narrowed his gaze, affixing this energy to his sight.

Floating before him was the spirit of a young woman in a pink dress. Delicate and lovely, her beauty was undeniable, but between her elegant brows lingered a fierce aura.

“She’s about to transform into a wild ghost,” Ling Qiu murmured, troubled. The girl’s resentment was immense; unleashed, her spirit brimmed with malice, poised to evolve from a wandering soul into a wild ghost.

Buzz!

Ling Qiu spun his ring sharply.

A flash—the spirit was pinned midair by three beams of light.

He concentrated on a talisman, then strode forward and pressed his palm onto the girl’s spectral forehead.

Whoosh—

Another icy gust arose from nowhere, then quickly faded.

The mortuary returned to its usual stillness, the eerie presence gone. The girl’s soul, once saturated with malice and resentment, gradually shed its anger. When Ling Qiu lifted the suppression, she curled on the ground, sobbing with heartbreaking grief.

“Wu wu wu—”

Her cries echoed, sorrowful enough for even ordinary people to faintly hear.

Outside the ward, Wu Suowei felt a jolt in his chest. “Damn—who’s crying?!”

He listened closer, but the sound had vanished.

Inside the mortuary.

Ling Qiu swiftly soothed the girl’s resentment, and spoke softly: “Tell me what happened. Don’t be afraid. I will not harm you.”

The girl’s soul slowly lifted her head. Her large, watery eyes, though shadowed by death, still held traces of charm and innocence.

For reasons he could not explain, Ling Qiu felt a strange familiarity in her gaze—as if he had seen her before.

“Taoist… Taoist…”

The girl’s soul trembled in fear, hugging her frail shoulders.

“Taoist?”

“He… he pierced me with needles… He said my resentment was too strong… He wouldn’t let me visit my sister in dreams… wu wu wu…”

“Sister?” Ling Qiu sensed something unusual.

Perhaps this girl had suffered injustice.

Ling Qiu quickly cast a ghost formation. Within its warmth, the girl’s soul grew clearer, steadier, as if the array were a comforting hearth, banishing her fear.

“Thank you… big brother, thank you for saving me.”

Calming down, even as a soul, her face regained its pale yet charming loveliness.

Ling Qiu asked, “What is your name?”

“I… I am Lan Xiaoman…”

“What caused your death? Why was your soul trapped? Who is the Taoist you mentioned?”

Ling Qiu’s questions were direct and concise.

Lan Xiaoman tried to recall, shivering—the memory clearly too painful.

“Don’t be afraid, Xiaoman. I am here,” Ling Qiu comforted, gently holding her cold, paper-white hand.

Lan Xiaoman nodded, gathering herself. “I’m a freshman at Jiang’an University. Last night, I got a call from the hospital saying my sister was admitted after a car accident. I left campus, but was kidnapped by several people. They took me to an abandoned factory, forced strange liquid down my throat, and I felt fire burning in my belly. I couldn’t last long—I died…”

Hearing this, Ling Qiu’s brows tightened.

Had they forced her to drink sulfuric acid, or something else?

Such cruel methods!

“I realized I was dead, floating above my own corpse. I overheard them talking… They said my sister failed in her task, caused their young master to become crippled, and that she was an assassin from the Hundred Pavilion. Since she couldn’t be killed, they vented their anger by killing me…”

Failed in her task? Assassin from the Hundred Pavilion?

Ling Qiu’s eyes grew sharp—he sensed something important.

“And then?”

“I became furious… Somehow, power surged through me, and I flung the murderers far away. They fled in terror. I chased them to a luxurious villa. Then…”

“What happened next?”

“It’s fuzzy… I remember a middle-aged man and an old man dressed like a Taoist in movies coming out. The elder noticed me, slapped on a talisman, and I blacked out…”

“When I awoke, my whole body was pierced with pain, unable to move. The old Taoist stuck many needles in me, saying my resentment was too strong, and if left unchecked, I would bring disaster, or visit my sister in dreams, which would trouble the Hundred Pavilion…”

Ling Qiu frowned deeply. “After that, you ended up here?”

“Yes…” Lan Xiaoman nodded weakly, still shaken.

Ling Qiu suddenly asked, “Is your sister named Long Yuelan?”

“Hmm?” Lan Xiaoman was startled. “How… how do you know my sister’s name?”

“Why is your surname different from hers?”

“She took our mother’s surname… Big brother, do you know something?”

“I do. And I know more than you realize.”

A flicker of murderous intent flashed in Ling Qiu’s eyes. He cast a sympathetic glance at Lan Xiaoman’s youthful face, and at the cold corpse in the freezer, secretly clenching his fist.

The Ling family… truly deserved a thousand deaths.

Such a blooming girl, destroyed by their petty vengeance—her life ended prematurely, nearly condemned to eternal unrest.

Not only was her life stolen, she almost lost her soul forever.